Mass Attendance of Prosecutor Executives at Autumn Inauguration Ceremony... Some Predict Mass Resignations

Newly appointed Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae is delivering her inaugural speech at the inauguration ceremony held on the 3rd at the Gwacheon Ministry of Justice building. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A large number of senior officials from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office attended the inauguration ceremony of Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae. This atmosphere is quite different from the time of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's inauguration, when many were excluded from attendance. Meanwhile, there was also a high-ranking official who tendered their resignation. It is reported that Park Gyuntaek, the head of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Justice on that day.

At the inauguration ceremony held on the 3rd at the Government Complex Gwacheon, Baek Seongbeom, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Kang Nam-il, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and Han Donghoon, Head of the Anti-Corruption and Serious Crimes Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office ? so-called 'Yoon Seok-yeol faction' aides ? attended. These are figures who will inevitably have direct or indirect influence on the personnel decisions expected to begin as early as next week. In the legal community, there is already widespread talk that the investigation command line, including Chief Prosecutor Bae and Head Han, may be 'demoted promotions' to high prosecutors or horizontally transferred to provincial chief prosecutors.

They were not even invited to the inauguration ceremony of former Minister Cho. In the unprecedented situation where the minister's family was under investigation, those who were in charge of the investigation command were reportedly not even named as attendees. At that time, only Kim Youngdae, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, attended the ceremony. A lawyer from the prosecution said about this change, "It shows the heightened internal tension within the prosecution as the replacement of the command is becoming more likely."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, it is known that Director Park expressed his intention to resign. This is the first resignation announcement from a senior prosecution official under Minister Choo's administration. He reportedly expressed frustration to those around him regarding the recent passage of the High-ranking Officials' Corruption Investigation Unit (HOCI) bill and the police-prosecutor investigation authority adjustment bill, which is about to be voted on in the National Assembly.

The legal community also predicts that such resignation announcements will continue in the future. Previously, senior prosecutors who led the so-called 'Ministry of Environment blacklist' case targeting the current administration's Blue House were reassigned to minor posts last year and subsequently resigned en masse. With internal dissatisfaction accumulating over the HOCI bill and others, if Minister Choo exercises her personnel authority, it is said that rebellious resignations from senior officials will continue.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.